Richard Kerr takes Championship race right to the wire

Richard Kerr ensured that the Pirelli National Superstock Championship will go right to the wire.

The Kilmacrennan ride, aboard the AMD Motorsport Honda Fireblade, finished sixth and ninth at Donington Park at the weekend.

The weekend’s finishes ensures that Kerr remains firmly in the title hunt.

Kerr posted the third fastest time in each of Friday’s free practice sessions around the Leicestershire venue. However, he was unable to improve upon his time in qualifying and that meant he had to settle for seventh place and a third row start for Saturday’s 15-lap race.

When the riders lined up on the grid later in the afternoon, the threat of rain was high and sure enough it started to fall on the fourth lap which brought the red flag out. Re-started over just eight laps of the 2.5-mile GP circuit, Kerr made a steady start to run in seventh and with championship leader Dan Linfoot down in tenth, he was on course to claw back some points.

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As the race progressed though, Linfoot upped his pace to eventually finish in sixth while Kerr dropped back and had to settle for ninth at the chequered flag, which saw the points gap between the two increase to 41 points.

The 23-year old lined up in ninth place for Sunday’s 15-lap race, which saw wetter conditions, with a good start seeing him complete the opening lap in seventh.

Briefly up into fifth on lap three, Fraser Rogers pushed him back to sixth two laps later and it was here where he finished but with Linfoot back in tenth on this occasion, it meant Kerr cut the points gap to 33 points with 70 still available at the final round

“Saturday’s race was obviously a disappointment and although we made all the right changes, the set-up of the rear shock wasn’t quite where I needed it to be in terms of getting the drive off the corners,” Kerr said.

“We haven’t had much time in the wet this year, but we made a good improvement in the damp warm-up session on Sunday morning and with the afternoon’s race being fully wet, we benefitted.

“We obviously want to finish higher than sixth, but it would have been easy to make a mistake and we had to look at the bigger picture. The boys at the front had nothing to lose and with Dan behind me, finishing ahead of him and clawing back some points was crucial so I’m pleased we achieved that and can take the fight to the final round.”

The final round of the series takes place at Brands Hatch on October 13-15.